Bump Bound - Week 8

(Originally written 08/18/12)

Baby is the size of a kidney bean!

Pictures will be every 4 weeks

 The following is the 8 week progress of baby development.  - Courtesy of babycenter.com

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl......

Still no “traditional” morning sickness to speak of.  The gag reflex is still working really well though and I’m becoming a pro at dry heaving. 
  

Smells that make me gag?  Aside from cigarette smoke and perfume the only two weird things that make me gag this week are:

Hot dogs.  YUCK!  We visited my mom and step-dad this weekend and they made hot dogs for dinner.  I came out of the bedroom and ran straight to the bathroom holding my mouth.  The smell was terrible and usually I LOVE the smell of hot dogs.  Sad.

The River.  My husband and I took a walk along the Columbia River last weekend and the seaweed, fishy smell was too much to handle.  Out came the gagging and the end of our walk.

Foods I can’t get enough of?  

Lucky Charms and tomato soup.  Thankfully not together.  I really don’t have much of an appetite for anything else.  I’ve been forcing myself to eat other things but all I really want is Lucky Charms or tomato soup.   I woke up starving at 2:30 the other night and all I wanted was some cereal.  I went downstairs, got myself a bowl and climbed back in bed and ate them by headlamp.  My husband couldn’t stop laughing.   

We had our first real appointment this week.  (I say real, because it was with the normal doctor.  Not the fertility clinic).  Honestly, it was kind of lame.  We just met with the nurse, answered a lot of questions and then I gave a ton of blood and had to pee in a cup.  Exciting huh?  We did get a lot of free stuff though which I always love.  They gave us a free formula starter pack, a book/journal to keep all of our prenatal appointment paperwork and ultrasound pictures, a free reusable diaper from Cotton Babies and a cool water bottle.  It was like Christmas! 

The downside of the appointment?  They informed me that my doctor’s last day was at the end of the month.  She will be transferring to a new clinic (the one clinic in Vancouver that I have strong negative feelings about) and she’ll only be working part time.  WHAT?!?!  I’ve been seeing this doctor for over five years with the intention of her being the one to walk me through my pregnancy and deliver our baby.  I love my doctor.  She is the most down to earth, friendly doctor I have ever met.  Now what am I going to do?  I can either start over with a new doctor or I can follow her to the clinic I despise and I’m still not guaranteed that I’ll get to see her on a regular basis.  I’m totally bummed.  But at least I didn’t cry!  I almost did.  But I didn’t.  That’s progress in the hormone department!

Is it a girl or a boy?  Obviously, its too early to tell at the moment.  We don’t have a preference one way or another but both my husband and myself keep getting a strong boy vibe.   

And they start....

(Originally written 08/12/12)

Crazy pregnancy dreams are a real thing.  I’ve had a few so far where I’ve woken up like, huh?  But there are only two that I can really remember. 

The first dream, my husband and I were with our friends and a tornado ripped through town.  We were in the middle of a square dancing lesson in our living room when the tornado picked up the house with all of us in it.  All while continuing our square dancing the house blew into a football field where we landed happily and had a tailgate party. 

The second dream was even weirder.  Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am NOT into politics.  I support a good friend but that is the extent of my political interest.  So this dream really caught me off guard…..I purchased a cool coffee table at a flea market.   The next thing I know, President Obama is calling me to tell me how cool this coffee table is and that he would do anything to have it.  After hours of negotiating I told him that he could have my coffee table but he would need to make it worth my while.  He would have to fly all of my family and friends to Washington DC and allow us to have Christmas in the White House. 

What the heck does that mean?

Bump Bound - Week 7

(Originally written 08/11/12)

Raging hormones while pregnant is an understatement!   I know hormones are a necessary part of growing a healthy baby but good lord!  Never in my wildest dreams did I think they would be this rampant.  I feel like a lunatic. 

I think the biggest hormone surge I had this week was when I “lost” my husband at the mall and completely freaked out.  We were at Nordstrom’s so I could return an item at the make-up counter.  My husband swears he tapped me on the shoulder and told me he’d be “right over there” but I didn’t hear nor feel anything.  All of the sudden, I looked over my shoulder and he was gone.  I circled Nordstrom’s a couple of times (which isn’t that big) and called him five times on his cell phone.  FIVE times!  Yeah, lunatic alert.  But he was nowhere to be found.   I remembered him saying something about the new Starbucks so I left the store and looked over there.  Nope.  He wasn’t there either.  I went back to Nordstrom’s and sent him a frantic text.  At this point, I don’t know what I was thinking but I was in Full. Panic. Mode.  I mean, bat-shit crazy!   I knew getting worked up was completely irrational but it didn’t matter.  My imagination was in full gear.   I wondered if I did something to make him mad and he’d left me at the mall.  Something I might add, he would NEVER do, but it crossed my mind anyways.  I tried to remember what he was wearing in case he’d been abducted but I couldn’t for the life of me remember what color shirt he was wearing, which made it even worse.  It was literally nuts.  Really?  Someone abducted a grown man at Nordstrom’s and no one saw anything?  Then I got even madder because I knew how stupid it was that these thoughts were running through my mind.   Finally, I caught his reflection in a mirror!  Phew!  I walked up to him steaming mad yet at the same time so relieved.  I started yelling and crying all at the same time.  It. Was. Ridiculous! 

I also must note that our best friends noticed my irritability too.  We went over to their house to help them finish their nursery and I was having a VERY moody day.  They still don't know I'm pregnant and it was to the point where they were like “this is odd.  Usually we’re the ones bickering.  Its like we’ve switched places.”   Once they said that, I knew I was bad.  My poor husband.  Hopefully the crazy lady inside of me disappears in the coming weeks. 

Bump Bound - Week 6

(Originally written 08/04/12)

Talk about moodiness!  Whoa!  Its like I have a split personality.   One day I’m happy and friendly and the next day I want to strangle someone for breathing too loudly.  It’s the strangest thing.  I’m so unbelievably happy but everything keeps pissing me off.  I keep having to stop and talk myself through things and calm myself down.  My bursts of moodiness are completely irrational, and I know that, which makes me get even more worked up.  Its been quite the adjustment.

Bloating?  That’s an understatement!  More like Blimping!  It hasn’t been so bad during the day but come 7:00 watch out! I feel like and look like a blimp.  My pants stop being able to button and it hurts so badly.  There’s no release either.  I’m not sure where all of this gas is going because its not coming out and by morning I feel back to normal….somewhat.

Nausea and Food Aversions?  Not so much.  I’ve actually worried myself sick because I haven’t been sick – At least not to the point where I thought I’d be sick when pregnant.  I’ve definitely been a little queasy and have had several gag moments but I still haven’t fully thrown up yet…..Which makes me worry.  I’ve always had it in my head that I would have full-blown, hold your hair back morning sickness.  But I don’t so far.  I tend to be a little a lot neurotic sometimes and I come from a long line of worriers so it’s in my genes to worry.  Thanks to the internet these days, I can usually help calm my worries and irrational thoughts with a little research.   I love to research random things. When I’m bored at work I research everything.   So of course, what do I do?  I researched morning sickness.  When it’s supposed to show its face and the different levels of it.  And what do I run across?  A study that says morning sickness is a good thing and those women who don’t experience morning sickness have a higher rate of miscarrying.  Dah!  Why did I research that?!?!  I’m such a tool!  Like that’s going to help me worry less.  Geeze!  My husband has now banned me from pregnancy research.

The great news?  We had our first appointment this week.  I was 6 weeks and 6 days along.  Since we had such a long road trying to conceive, my doctor insisted that we do an ultrasound at about 6 weeks to verify the pregnancy was viable and that it wasn't ectopic.  (As if the three blood tests they performed weren't accurate enough).  Waiting for this appointment was torture.  Every little twinge or discomfort I experienced made me wonder if it was in fact an ectopic pregnancy.  Gah!  Stupid neurotic self!  Just as my husband assured me it would be, everything was fine with our little grasshopper.  It is progressing just as it should be and had a nice strong heartbeat of 130 beats per minute.  Yay!!!  What an amazing sound to hear.  The ultrasound was cool to see too but the baby is still so small that it didn't really look like much more than a blob.  Sadly my husband wasn't able to make this appointment.  His yahoo of a boss made him extend his business trip and miss the appointment OR ELSE.  That guy’s a regular RICHARD!  I reassured my husband that he’ll get to go to the first official appointment and see the baby soon enough.  

Seeing and hearing the heartbeat was insane and of course, I started crying – A regular occurrence these days. 

That's the heartbeat  sound waves

The tiny blob

Bump Bound - Week 5

(Originally written 7/30/12)

I know it’s still very early in the pregnancy and everything I’ve read says that you may start to experience “mild” symptoms this week, but holy moly!  I would say that I’m definitely starting to experience some symptoms.  The “ladies” are so unbelievably sore.   They are sorest first thing in the morning and then again late at night.  Don’t get me wrong, they hurt like mad during the day but for some reason the morning is the worst.  I think I’m going to have to bust out the sports bra to sleep in tonight.   As it is, I have to cuddle my chest when I roll out of bed and go to the bathroom.…….Oh the bathroom.  That’s another thing I’ve noticed.  I never need to use the bathroom during the night but for the past few nights I wake up at least twice a night with a major urge to go.  I also counted the other day at work.  I went 6 times before noon!  SIX times!  I didn’t even drink anything.  Where is this pee coming from?  Seriously, I want to know.  Does anyone know?   If this is “mild” then watch out in the coming months!  I just may take up full-time residence at the pooper………Oh and that’s another symptom.  Holy butt cramps!    This is probably TMI but I have had the worst pressure in my butt.  Like the constant urge to “go” but I don’t really have to go, with massive bloating.  Apparently the pressure is a common symptom if you have a tilted uterus – which I do.  And I hear it only gets worse, so it sounds like this is a symptom that I better get used to.  Fabulous.  So if I make a constipated face while talking to you, just ignore it.  Its probably a butt cramp. LOL!

Cravings?  You wouldn’t think so but I usually get random cravings when I’m not pregnant so I’m not really surprised.  Well, I’m not surprised at the fact that I had a craving but I’m pretty surprised by what I was craving……It was like 1:00 in the morning and all of the sudden I was starving.  I mean, chew off my own hand off kind of starving.   I should preface this with the fact that a few nights earlier I had a dream that I went apple shopping with my mother-in-law.  Yes, apple shopping.  It was very important to pick out a handful of every kind of apple in the store.  That was it.  That was the entire dream.  A day of apple shopping.  Weird, I know!  So anyways, at 1:00 in the morning all I wanted was a Granny Smith Apple with some Carmel dip and some Lays Potato Chips.  Now if you know me at all, I don’t usually eat apples and I despise Lays Potato Chips.   I want something with “flavor” like Doritos or something…..At least, the non-pregnant me wants something with “flavor”.  The pregnant me was about to drive to the store to pick up some plain potato chips.   Luckily, we have a big box of Lays Potato chips in our pantry because we had already eaten all the good kinds in our lunches.  Score!  They may have expired last March but they should have a long shelf life right?  Maybe a little stale but they still tasted good!  As for the Granny Smith Apple with Caramel?  We didn’t have any and I was out of luck.  My husband said he would go to the store and pick some up but I told him that it was way too early in the pregnancy for him to be running out in the middle of the night to satisfy my cravings.  I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities later on, but I SO appreciated his offer.  And of course, the next day he picked me up some Granny Smith Apples and Caramel dip to get me through my next weird craving.  Would you expect anything less from him?  He’s so amazing!

Yeah, yeah, I know that's not a Granny Smith Apple, but I ate them all.  Oops.